Former chief election commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has suggested not to deploy army in the upcoming 12th Jatiya Sangsad election.

"Army deployment in elections yields no result at all," he said while speaking at an opinion-sharing meeting at Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon in the capital on Sunday (June 12). "It is absolutely meaningless."

The Election Commission (EC) arranged the opinion-sharing meeting with the former CEC, ECs and Secretaries.

KM Nurul Huda served as the CEC from February 2017 to February this year. The EC under him organised the 11th Jatiya Sangsad election. Jatiya Oikya Front, which was defeated in the election, had strongly criticised the polls. In that election, army was deployed across the country during the voting at the request of the EC.

Nurul Huda said the number of law enforcers deployed in the election in Bangladesh is very unique. Perhaps, it doesn't exist anywhere in the world."

"Hundreds of law enforcement personnel stand like war footing with guns in hands during the election. It is absolutely unnecessary to deploy army, because we saw their activities in the previous elections. I don't think that they have any role to play in the election. So, it is better not to deploy our elite force army during the election," he said.

Citing that some 75 per cent of the allocation in the election need to be spent for law enforcers, Nurul Huda said, "When we were in schools, we saw that a chowkider controls a polling centre with a whistle in mouth and a bamboo stick in hands. Now-a-days, Army, BGB, RAB and police are deployed. The number of armed personnel at a polling centre equals to the number of policemen at a police station," he said.

The CEC also observed that security at the polling centres is not essential in spite of using EVMs (electronic voting machines) in the voting. "EVM is such a box which cannot be snatched away. Vote of one individual can't be cast by another individual. EVMs cannot be started before the voting. It has lots of advantages."

With CEC Kazi Habibul Awal in the chair, the opinion-sharing meeting was also joined by former CEC Shamsul Huda who conducted the 2008 general election, Justice Abdur Rouf who conducted the 1991 general election, former ECs Mohammad Shahnewaz, Mahbub Talukder and Abu Hafiz spoke at the opinion-sharing meeting.

Former secretaries Mohammad Abdullah and Mohammad Sadique, former additional secretary Mokhlesur Rahman and Jesmine Tuli also spoke at the meeting.